Calculating machine



July 10, 1934. E, F. BRITTEN, JR

GALCULATING MACHINE Filed March l5, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet l NammlvvlNllnln \\j @@Qmwm@@VN @LW x/Mmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm R mmlmmmmm mx INVENTOROoooweoooooooomkyobo July 10, 1934-.

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CLCULATING MACHINE 'Filed March 15, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Ewi r? FEE/1'tte/uji m ATTORNEY INVENTOR July 10, 1934. E. F. BRlTTEN, JR

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M ATTORNEY July 10, 1934. E, F. BRITT-EN, JR

CALCULATING MACHINE Filed March' 1 5, 1954 '4 Sheets-Sheet 4 i ATTORNEYPatented July 10, 1934 CALCULATIN G MACHINE Edwin F. Britten, Jr.,Maplewood, N. J., assgnor to Monroe Calculating Machine Company, Orange,N. J., a corporation of Delaware Application March 13, 1934, Serial No.715,293

1 Claim. (Cl. 23S-145) The inventionhas relation to calculating machinesand more particularly to improvements in the digit selecting meansthereof.

- The digit selecting mechanism of the well known Monroe calculatingmachine, the essential features of which are disclosed in U. S. Patent980,888, issued to F. S. Baldwin on June 16,

1908, and in U. S. Patent 1,399,652, issued to E. E.

Phinney lon December 6, 1921, is commonly set to digit selectingposition by means of a bank of depressible keys. The essential portionsof this selecting mechanism could, however, be set by the operation of aseries of slides, in accordance with a well known arrangement. Thepresent invention relates to improvements in a slide set digit selectormechanism of this character, whereby a convenient means for restoringthe slides to zero or inactive position may be employed withoutappreciably loading 11p the slides or rendering their adjustmentdiicult. i,

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the invention:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a calculating machine embodying the invention.Y

Fig. 2 is a right side elevation, with the casing removed.

Fig. 3 is a section, taken on line 3--3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the selector bails and diierential. actuatorgears.

In these drawings, numeral 4 designates a rotary shaft, on which aremounted pairs of differential actuator gears. The gear 5 of each pair isprovided with four teeth Aof graded lateral extent, and the cooperatinggear 6 of each pair is provided with ve teeth` of even length. The gears5 and 6 are adapted to be moved along shaft 4, to bring the desirednumber of gear teeth into the plane of an intermediate gear 12, meshingwith the gear of a numeral wheel 13.

The gears 5 and 6 having been, set as desired, shaft 4 is rotated toadvance the numeral wheels 13 in accordance with the settings of thedifferential actuator gears, in the usual manner. The numeral wheels 13are shown as mounted in a transversely shiftable carriage, movable withrelation to the selecting mechanism to increase or decrease the value ofprevious registrations, in the well known manner.

A spring 15 is inserted between each pair of gears 5 and 6, said springserving to hold the gear 5 in contact with a bail 17 and the gear 6 incontact with a bail 19, these bails being adapted for lateral rockingmovement to set the gears 5 and` 6 toward each other along shaft 4.

'I'he upper edges of these bails are laterally oil?- set, as shown inFig. 3, these offsets being graduated to correspond with the graduatedteeth of the. differential actuator gears. The upper olfset edges ofeach pair of balls 17, 19 are engaged between downwardly extendingprojections 8 and 9, of a setting plate 10, mounted for sliding movementlongitudinally of the bails, and manually settable along a numberedscale of the top plate l by means of the lug 1l, extending through aslot of said plate. A second lug 14, moves along the gures of the scale,and the slide may also carry a second numbered scale, readable throughopenings in the plate 1.

In Figs. 3 and 4 the plates 10 are shown standing in the zero position,wherein none of the teeth of gears 5 and 6 will be in mesh with theintermediate gears 12,.

Assuming that the right hand plate 10 (Fig. 4) is moved upwardly, itwill be obvious that the rst step of upward movement will bring theprojection 8 in contact with the shoulder of the first graduation ofbail 17, thereby moving said bail one step to the left, and bringing onetooth of the related gear 5 into the plane of its intermediate gear 12.Further movement of plate 10 will similarly bring two, three and fourteeth yof gear 5 into registering position. The next step of movement ofplate 10 will allow gear 5 to move back out of registering position,under the influence of spring 15, and at the 5 same time projection 9will engage the shoulder of the graduation `of bail 19, rocking saidbail and bringing the ve teeth of gear 6 into the plane of theintermediate gear 12. Further upward movement of plate 10 will maintaingear 6 in registering position and will move gear 5, one, two, three andfour steps, so that the gears 5 and 6 collectively, will servetoregister six, seven, eight and nine on the numeral Wheels 13.

The setting plates 10 are adapted to be located 95 accurately in any oneof their ten set positions by means of spring actuated pawls 16 (Fig. 3)engaging serrated lower surfaces 21 of said plates.

In order to clear the selecting mechanism, that is to say, in order tobring all of the slides 10 100 to their zero positions, retractionsprings 22 connect the plates with the forward frame of the machine, andmeans are provided for lifting all of the pawls 16 out of engagementwith .the serrations 21. For this purpose a bail 23 is provided with aflange underlying the forward arms 24 of the pawl 16, said bail beingengaged by a. key lever 25, fulcrumed at 26 and manually operable tollft the ball 23 and disengage the slides 10 from the pawls 16.

it will be noted that in the retraction of the plates l by springs 22,the movement along the graduations of the bails 17 and 19 will beunobstructed by the shoulders of the graduated portions, except that inpassing from five to four setting position an abrupt shoulder 27 of bail1'? will be encountered by projection 8. In order that shoulder 27 maynot load up the return movement of plate l0 upon depression of the clearlrey, thus necessitating unduly strong springs 22 Aand pawls 16 havingan unduly stiff spring action, means are provided for rocking the hails17 to the left during the clearing action. This means consists of atransversely slidable plate 28 having lugs engaging upstanding lugs 29of the hails 1'?, plate 28 having acam surface 3G engageable by the keylever 25 in the clearing movement.

In order` to positively force the plates into precise set positionbefore the machine is operated, a 'pail 31 is arranged to overlie thefor Ward arms 24- o the parvis 16, said bail being normally held in itsupper position by spring 32 (Fig. 2). Bail 31 at its right hand end isprovided with an arm 33 extending forward into position to be engaged bya locking disk 34, fast with one of the gears of the drive train for theactuator shaft 4. 'Upon movement of this drive train, as by manipulationof the crank handle 3, locking disk 34 will force bail 23 against theforward arm 24 'ci' the pawls, forcing said pawls upward unto fullengagement with the serrations 21 of plates 10, and holdingrthem in suchposition during the registering movement of the gears 5 and 6.

A latch 35 (Fig. 2) may be provided, said latch being adapted to engagea pin 36 of the arm 33 of lbail 31, said latch when thrown into engagingposition serving to lock the slides 10 in their adjusted positions andthereby to maintain such adjustment and prevent accidental displacementof the slides.

I claim:

In a calculating machine, the combination with digit selecting mechanismincluding a series of pivoted setting bails provided with graduatedsurfaces, differential actuators, springs adapted to hold said actuatorsin contact with said hails, plates slidable in contact with thegraduated surfaces of said bails, restoring springs for said plates, andspring locator pawls engaging said plates; of a clear key, a bailoperable by said key and adapted to release the locator pawrls, and aslide operable by said key and adapted to move the setting bails out ofcontact with the slidable plates.

EDWIN F. BRITTEN, Je.

